Keep in touch with all your friends and family using Pidgin, the free multi-protocol instant messaging program. Tutorial 1 - Installation

Installing Pidgin to your Windows PC can be a long process. Fortunately, it is not very difficult. If you follow our tutorial carefully, you will be up and running in no time.

The first step is to obtain the latest version of the software. Visit the Pidgin download page for Windows to obtain the latest version. Save the file to your desktop or somewhere where you can easily access it. When downloading is complete, double click the file, or choose 'open' or 'run' in your browsers download manager to start the installation process.

Windows Vista users may have to enter their administrators password and/or grant permission for the installation to continue, if prompted by Windows User Account Control.

Once the installer is started, the following window will be displayed:-

Choose your preferred installation language, then click "OK" to move to the window shown below:-

Click "Next >" to move to the window shown below:-

Scroll down to review the licence agreement and if you agree, click on "Next >". You will then move to the window shown below:-

There are several additional components you can install along with Pidgin. We recommend that you tick "URI Handlers" (circled in red in the picture above). This will install full support for all the popular messaging services. If you scroll down further, you can also choose to install a spell-checker. This is also optional, but recommended.

When you have chosen the components you want to install, click on "Next >". You will then be taken to the window shown below:-

GTK+ is part of the framework that Pidgin uses and must be installed. Here you can choose where to install it. The default location is fine for most users, so simply click on "Next >". The following window will then be displayed:-

Here you can choose where to install Pidgin. Again, the default location is fine for most users, so simply click on "Next >". The following window will then be displayed:-

There will be a short pause while files are copied. If you chose to install the spell-checker, click here to be taken to the supplemental installation instructions for GNU Aspell. If you did not elect to install the spell checker, after a short pause, the following window will be displayed:-

Click "Next >". The following window will then appear:-

Congratulations, Pidgin is now fully installed and ready for use.